Anirban Lahiri (+8000, BetMGM)

One important angle that could be used in finding value in Mexico this week is targeting golfers who have a history of performing well on paspalum fairways and greens. Anirban Lahiri ranks fifth in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on Paspalum in his past 24 rounds, but his fantastic run of the surface dates back even further.

Lahiri hasn’t won on the PGA Tour, but he has a couple of wins on the Asian Tour, which features many of the same style courses with paspalum fairways and greens. His victories have come at the Malaysian Open, which was played at CIMB Classic host TPC Kuala Lumpur.

The 34-year-old has posted some good results at the CIMB, including in 2016 when he had the 54-hole lead but finished in third behind Justin Thomas and Hidedki Matsuyama. Luckily for Lahiri, the field this week won’t feature players like that outside of Rahm.

Lahiri has also had a great deal of success at El Camaleón Golf Club, which hosts the Mayakoba Classic in the fall. Lahiri has shown up on the Mayakoba leaderboard with a 10th-place finish in 2018 and 14th-place finish in 2017.

Just last month, Lahiri finished second at the PLAYERS Championship, which was only one stroke behind winner Cameron Smith. He shot 3-under par on Sunday, which I found to be incredibly impressive considering the circumstances.

If Lahiri finds himself in contention this week, he should be much more equipped to earn his first PGA Tour victory.

Brandon Wu (+13000, DraftKings)

As referenced earlier, golfers with history on courses that feature Paspalum are a good place to start this week. Naturally, the first place to look should be how a golfer performed at both Corales and the Puerto Rico Open this season, both courses have a lot of similarities and have paspalum greens. The 25-year-old Wu finished 28th at Corales and third in Puerto Rico last month.

Wu’s success on the aforementioned tracks wasn’t just a hot stretch. The Stanford product also finished seventh in Puerto Rico in 2021, so there is something about the course fit that he’s taking a liking to.

Wu is a talented player who won the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour Championship by beating out a good deal of talented young players. With a weak field in Mexico, I believe he is more than capable if he gets in the mix.

Brice Garnett (+25000, DraftKings)

A third member of “team paspalum” is Brice Garnett, and his paspalum success is undeniably the most impressive of them all. The 38-year-old has five top-10 finishes on Paspalum since 2018 including a win at the 2018 Corales Championship. His recent form leaves much to be desired, but he did finish in seventh place at last month’s Puerto Rico Open.

In a typical week, it’s unlikely I’d bet Garnett to win outright but this is the right price in the right field to take a shot on him.